British police say three men have been arrested by officers investigating the burgeoning horsemeat scandal in Europe.

Police in Wales said today’s arrests on suspicion of fraud offenses occurred at two plants that were inspected earlier this week by the UK's Food Standards Agency.

Police said two men - ages 64 and 42 - were arrested Farmbox Meats near Aberystwyth, in Wales, while a 63-year-old man was arrested at the Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.

The arrests come after Britain's food regulator said six horse carcasses that tested positive for an equine painkiller may have entered the human food chain in France and that horsemeat tainted with the medicine may have been sold to consumers "for some time".